A team of experts will fly to Qatar in the coming days to finalise a proposal put forward by the government of Cyprus to ship aid to Gaza by way of a ‘humanitarian sea corridor’ from the eastern Mediterranean island.
Following talks with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha today, Cyprus’s president Nikos Christodoulides confirmed the experts would visit the Gulf state imminently. The leader told reporters:
We agreed that in the next few days a technical team from Cyprus, our team of experts who are working on the details of our proposal, will be here in order to proceed with the implementation of everything as described in the Republic of Cyprus’s proposal.
Under the initiative large quantities of aid will be dispatched to the besieged coastal strip on vessels loaded at the port of Larnaca. Israeli agents would inspect the shipments both at the Cypriot port and once they were transferred onto ships.
Christodoulides has said the plan could be activated as soon as conditions on the ground permit, with Cypriot experts fine-tuning arrangements since it was formally announced in early November. Larnaca lies a mere 210 nautical miles away from Gaza.
The shipments would supplement the trickle of aid getting into the enclave via lorries crossing through Egypt’s Rafah checkpoint with sources describing a single shipment as the equivalent of 500 trucks of aid.
Qatar, which has played a crucial role mediating the four-day truce in fighting that is set to expire Tuesday AM in the event that an extension is not reached, is now believed to be working on plans to kickstart the maritime aid corridor as soon as possible.
The EU’s most easterly member state, Cyprus has good relations with Israel and the Arab world. Christodoulides has said the initiative highlights the strategic island’s ability to be “a bridge to the region.”
The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, was asked on National Public Radio this morning about the prospects for an extension to the hostage arrangement, under which Hamas would release 10 more hostages for each extra day of ceasefire. This is what Kirby said.
We don’t know. We certainly hope that it can [be extended]... The onus is going to be on Hamas.. to be able to come up with those 10 hostages per day.
“We have been working this literally by the hour, and that will be no different today,” Kirby said.
Asked about Joe Biden’s personal involvement, Kirby said:
In the last three days, and of course throughout today, he’ll be personally involved. He engaged with the leaders yesterday, he spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Emir of Qatar, to make sure that we are moving forward as much as possible and to explore the idea of an extension on Hamas’s part and on Israel’s part. That was one of the prime focuses of his communications yesterday, so he personally engaged and I would fully expect him to stay personally engaged going forward.
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Egypt and Qatar are close to reaching a deal to extend Israel’s truce with Gaza by two days. Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said the two-day extension would include the release of 20 Israeli hostages and 60 Palestinian detainees. 11 Israeli hostages are expected to be released on Monday.
An Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the total number of hostages still held in Gaza was now 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality. Israel and Hamas are both reported to have raised issues with the lists provided for the potential releases today. An official briefed on the talks said: “The Qataris are working with both sides to resolve it and avoid delays.”
17 hostages Hamas freed on Sunday included a four-year-old Israeli-American girl, three Thai nationals and a Russian national, and all the Israelis were women or children, Israel said. Prison authorities said 39 Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, were freed from Israeli jails.
The Palestinian Authority foreign affairs minister Riad al-Malki said in Barcelona that the pause in fighting that is about to expire in the Israel-Hamas war must be extended to avoid more deaths in Gaza. “The truce went into effect with 15,000 deaths. If we see the war resume, then the number of deaths will double because the concentration of the population is now twicefold,” he said.
The Jordanian foreign minister has accused Israel of “acting as if it is above the law” while “killing 30 years of work” to try to find peace in the Middle East. Ayman al-Safadi said what is happening in Gaza is within the realm of the legal definition of genocide.”
“Palestinian people cannot pay for the action of Hamas,” the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said. “It makes no sense to give food to somebody that will be killed the day after. We need to stop the bombardment, and we have to avoid more deaths. Humanitarian help is necessary, but it’s not enough,” he said.
Al Jazeera reports that more than 60 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces overnight in the occupied West Bank.
The daughter of Elma Avraham, the 84-year-old in a serious medical condition after her release by Hamas, has criticised the International Red Cross for, she said, failing to take care of her mother.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi will go to New York on 29 November to host the UN security council session on the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
Ireland’s foreign ministry has issued a statement after the Irish ambassador to Israel, Sonya McGuinness, was summoned for a reprimand. It “expressed surprise on the part of the Irish government” that recent statements about the release of Irish-Israeli hostage had been “publicly criticised by the Israeli government”.
Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has announced his country will contribute €7m ($7.6m / £6m) to the reconstruction of the Be’eri Gallery at kibbutz Be’eri, after it was destroyed during the Hamas 7 October attack.
In the US a suspect was arrested late on Sunday in relation to the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont.
Two day-extension of Israel-Hamas truce reportedly close
Egyptian and Qatari efforts to extend Israel’s truce with Hamas by two days are nearing completion, Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said on Monday.
The two-day extension would include the release of 20 Israeli hostages and 60 Palestinian detainees, Reuters reports he said. Eleven Israeli hostages are expected to be released on Monday.
Updated
Associated Press reports that its video team has captured footage of the north Gazan town of Beit Hanoun which shows that virtually every building has been damaged by the ongoing conflict. Some are entirely leveled and others ripped open, it reports.
It reported that a handful of residents searched beneath the rubble for anything of use or value. The UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA’s Beit Hanoun school was one of few buildings still standing, but with holes in its walls and roof, likely caused by missile or artillery fire.
It said the war-ravaged city has been largely abandoned.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel on what is currently expected to be the final day of the temporary truce.
Ireland’s foreign ministry has issued a statement after the Irish ambassador to Israel, Sonya McGuinness, was summoned for a reprimand.
The Israeli government had accused Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, of legitimising terror and losing his moral compass by saying freed Irish-Israeli hostage Emily Hand had been “lost” as opposed to kidnapped.
It its statement, the ministry says that McGuniess presented Israel with the full statements issued by Varadkar and tánaiste Micheál Martin. It went on to say:
These statements referenced the traumatic experience endured by Emily and her family, reiterated thanks to international partners who had facilitated her freeing from captivity and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
In this context, ambassador McGuinness expressed surprise on the part of the Irish Government that these expressions of evident relief at Emily’s release had been publicly criticised by the Israeli Government.
The ambassador further reiterated today Ireland’s unequivocal position that all hostages held by Hamas should be immediately and unconditionally released; the importance of fully respecting International Humanitarian Law and getting desperately needed humanitarian supplies to civilians in Gaza; that the current truce should become a sustainable humanitarian ceasefire; and that the international community must focus on a pathway to deliver a two-state solution which can allow the people of Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security as neighbours.
Updated
The Palestinian Authority foreign affairs minister Riad al-Malki says the pause in fighting that is about to expire in the Israel-Hamas war must be extended to avoid more deaths in Gaza.
“We have work so that this truce continues … so that Israel does not continue attacking,” al-Malki said in Barcelona.
“The truce went into effect with 15,000 deaths. If we see the war resume, then the number of deaths will double because the concentration of the population is now twicefold,” AP reports he said.
“The population of Gaza has concentrated in the south of Gaza,” he said, speaking in Spanish. “So any attack that before killed one child will now kill two. That is why it is important to extend this truce.”
Updated
Ayman al-Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, has said Israel must realise that peace with its neighbours is not a concession for anyone.
“Nobody is doing anybody a favour by opting for peace. We want peace for both peoples. We want peace so that Palestinians and Israelis can live without the humiliation of occupation or the fear for security,” he told reporters in Barcelona.
He also called on leaders to dial down the rhetoric and stop accusing those urging peace as “anti-this or anti-that”.
“I think the horrific cost of this war dictates that we act in unison and we act clearly … to stop a catastrophe that’s threatening the security of the whole region, and which will have repercussions that will go beyond the region into our neighbourhood in Europe and elsewhere,” he said.
“If we all agree that the two state solution is the only path to it, what are we going to do if Israel refuses to engage just as Israel is now refusing to abide by international law?” he asked.
“Are we going to continue to offer lip service to the two state solution? Or are we going to come together united and say, ‘we have to stop this conflict?’
“And we’re going to do whatever it takes to end this conflict and anybody who’s standing in the way needs to be pressured into doing what’s right for the Palestinians, and for the Israelis.
“Because when we speak about peace, we’re not taking sides.”
The Jordanian foreign minister has accused Israel of “acting as if it is above the law” while “killing 30 years of work” to try to find peace in the Middle East.
“That work is being rendered meaningless with the continuing of this war with more people losing faith in the viability of this process,” said Ayman al-Safadi.
“What is happening in Gaza is within the realm of the legal definition of genocide,” he told reporters after a meeting of Mediterranean countries in Barcelona.
He said the world had to acknowledge that Hamas’s attack on 7 October must be seen in the context of the treatment of Palestinian people by the Israeli government.
Israel’s government, he said, “has systematically worked to undermine the prospects for peace, to deny the Palestinian people … their culture, their history, their rights to exist”.
That was “terrorism too,” he said.
“Another point I want to make is the credibility of international law.
“International law was made so that everybody abides by it. It was made so all countries adhere to it. It was not made so that some countries are allowed to break it is breaking international law.
“Israel has been acting as if it’s above the law. And this has to stop,” said al-Safadi.
A suspect was arrested on Sunday in relation to the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont, the night before, police said, adding that contrary to media reports, the shooter did not speak before firing.
Jason J Eaton, 48, was arrested Sunday afternoon near where the men, all 20 years old, were shot, the Burlington police department announced. They said he lives in an apartment close to the scene, a search of which revealed evidence that gave investigators “probable cause to believe that Mr Eaton perpetrated the shooting”, police said.
The chief of police, Jon Murad, recommended caution when it came to identifying a motive in the attacks. “The fact is that we don’t yet know as much as we want to right now,” Murad said. “But I urge the public to avoid making conclusions based on statements from uninvolved parties who know even less.”
The mayor of the city, Miro Weinberger, said before the arrest that the investigation was focusing on whether the attack was a hate crime, while the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said on X: “We have reason to believe that the shooting was motivated by the three [victims] being Arab.”
Read more here: Suspect arrested in shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermont
Updated
“Palestinian people cannot pay for the action of Hamas,” the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said after a meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean Regional Forum involving EU, north African and Middle East foreign ministers in Barcelona.
He used a press conference to reiterate his condemnation of the Hamas attack in October but said it was vital that the current truce in Gaza was extended to a permanent one with, he said, 15,000 dead already.
“We are in a ceasefire that has to be extended towards a final solution,” he said. Borrell also urged Israel to act within international and humanitarian law.
“It makes no sense to give food to somebody that will be killed the day after. We need to stop the bombardment, and we have to avoid more deaths. Humanitarian help is necessary, but it’s not enough.
“For 30 years we have been repeating that we need the two-state solution but we have done almost nothing to achieve it and today we have to realise that the deaths will continue if we don’t get to an end solution,” he told reporters at a press conference.
Updated
Israel PM's office: negotiations over list of hostages to be released 'continuing'
The Israeli prime minister’s office has just made the following announcement:
Negotiations on the list of those slated to be released under the framework of the hostages release outline are continuing.
We are aware of the tension in the families and will release additional information when possible. We request to refrain from disseminating rumors and unreliable information.
Announcement from the Prime Minister's Office:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 27, 2023
Negotiations on the list of those slated to be released under the framework of the hostages release outline are continuing.
Earlier, government spokesperson Eylon Levy said:
Hamas is on notice – that option for an extension is open. We want to receive another additional 50 hostages beyond tonight, on our way to bringing everyone home. As soon as that framework expires, Israel will continue with full force.
AP is also carrying details from sources close to the deal of how negotiations are going. It reports two Egyptian officials said talks are aimed at extending the ceasefire for another four days, with one saying that both sides have agreed in principle.
But the official added that violence in the occupied West Bank is complicating matters, with Hamas demanding an end to Israeli military raids.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested and scores killed in clashes with Israeli forces since the war began. Al Jazeera earlier put the number of detentions at more than 3,000. 60 people were said to have been detained overnight, on the day when Hamas released 17 hostages, including 14 Israelis, and Israel released 39 Palestinians from its jails.
An Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the total number of hostages still held in Gaza was 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality.
If Hamas were to release them at the proposed rate of 10 a day, that might extend the truce for as long as two-and-a-half weeks.
However, the equation is complicated by the fact that it is not known if Hamas has control or knows the whereabouts of all the hostages held in Gaza, and it is unlikely to want to release Israeli military members without making greater demands in return. In 2011 Israel exchanged 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for one solider, Gilad Shalit.
Updated
Reuters has spoken to the Al Sultan family in Deir al-Balah. They told reporters they had taken advantage of the truce to snatch a few hours by the sea.
“We used these four days (of truce) and came to the beach in Deir al-Balah to allow our children to have some fun,” their mother, Hazem Al Sultan, said. “We are anticipating the end of these four days, and we don’t know what will happen to us next.”
The truce is expected to end tomorrow under the current arrangements, however Reuters reports that an extension may be put in place. It reports sources close to the negotiations said Hamas was seeking a four-day extension, while Israel wanted day-by-day extensions, with negotiations continuing over which Palestinian prisoners would be freed.
Updated
The daughter of Elma Avraham, the 84-year-old in a serious medical condition after her release by Hamas, has criticised the International Red Cross for, she said, failing to take care of her mother.
The Times of Israel quotes Tali Amano saying:
My mother didn’t deserve to return like this. My mother was medically neglected. The Red Cross refused to bring her her medications. She arrived with a heart rate of 40bpm and a body temperature of 28 degrees Celsius, on the verge of losing consciousness and injured all over.
She was abandoned twice – once on 7 October, and a second time by all the organisations that should have saved her. I hope they haven’t managed to defeat her.
Updated
Reuters, citing Egyptian security sources, has reported that negotiators are close to agreeing an extension to the truce in Gaza. It says negotiators are working on differences over the length of the extension and the list of Palestinian detainees to be released.
More details soon …
While residents in Gaza wait to see if the truce will be extended, some are still moving south within the Gaza Strip while the Israeli military carries on its activity there.
The thas also allowed for the limited delivery of more much-needed aid into the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday that the total number of hostages still held in Gaza was now 184, including 14 foreigners and 80 Israelis with dual nationality.
Israel and Hamas are both reported to have raised issues with the lists provided for the potential releases today. Reuters reports an official briefed on the talks said: “The Qataris are working with both sides to resolve it and avoid delays.”
Israel has said it has shown willingness to extend the truce if Hamas will continue to release hostages. An Israeli official told Reuters the onus was on Hamas to produce a new list of 10 hostages it could free on Tuesday in exchange for that becoming an additional truce day. That process would continue for a maximum of five additional days to the current truce, the official added.
Updated
Al Jazeera reports that more than 60 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces overnight in the occupied West Bank. The news network says that more than 3,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces there since 7 October.
Haaretz reports that Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has announced his country will contribute €7m ($7.6m / £6m) to the reconstruction of the Be’eri Gallery at kibbutz Be’eri, after it was destroyed during the Hamas 7 October attack.
On a visit to the kibbutz, one of the worst affected by the violence on that day, Steinmeier said:
It is not easy to find the words to describe what we heard from those who know and those who witnessed the actions, the murders, the killings, and the Hamas violence here on 7 October. In these days of mourning, days when we think about the victims, we also think about the future.
Updated
Nato’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, called on Monday for an extension of the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, now in its final day, to allow for the release of more hostages.
Speaking to reporters, Reuters reports he also said Iran should rein in its “proxies”.
Updated
Qatar, Egypt, the United States, the European Union and Spain are working to extend the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister said on Monday, Reuters reports.
After calling for a lasting ceasefire to avoid an increase in civilian deaths, Riyad Al-Maliki said the current truce could be extended for “one, two, three days” but added that no one knew for how long.
Al-Maliki was addressing a news conference alongside Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares during the Forum for the Union of the Mediterranean in Barcelona.
The truce is expected to come to an end tomorrow under the present arrangements. Israel and Hamas have exchanged lists of hostages and detainees expected to be released today, although Israeli media is reporting that both sides of the deal have issues with the list provided by the other today, and that mediators are working to bring the sides together.
Summary of the day so far …
Here are the latest headlines …
The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its 7 October attack. The pause that began on Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with more than 100 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in return.
The 17 hostages Hamas freed on Sunday included a four-year-old Israeli-American girl, three Thai nationals and a Russian national, and all the Israelis were women or children, Israel said. Prison authorities said 39 Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, were freed from Israeli jails. Israel’s government confirmed on Monday it had received a list of the proposed people to be released today.
Delegations from European Union member states and Middle Eastern and north African countries are meeting Monday in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss the crisis in Gaza. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell said “One horror cannot justify another horror” at the meeting, while Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safad said “Europe has a crucial role to play. The two-state solution cannot remain a talking point”. Israel has declined to attend the meeting.
78-year-old Margalit Moses, one of the hostages released by Hamas over the weekend, has been discharged from hospital. However, the son of Elma Avraham has said his 84-year-old is in a serious condition and fighting for her life in hospital after being released from captivity.
A Muslim group in Thailand that spoke directly with Hamas has said their efforts were the driving force securing the release of Thai hostages from Gaza, countering reports that gave credit to the foreign ministry and other negotiators.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi will go to New York on 29 November to host the UN security council session on the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
Ireland’s further education minister, Simon Harris, has said Israel’s decision to summon the Irish ambassador for a reprimand over taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying an “an innocent child who was lost has now been found” about Emily Hand was “a bit of an overreaction”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest pictures from the Israel-Hamas conflict sent to us over the news wires from Israel, Gaza and the UAE.
with Israel's president Isaac Herzog. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/EPA
Irish minister: Israel's decision to summon Irish ambassador for reprimand 'bit of an overreaction'
Ireland’s further education minister, Simon Harris, has said Israel’s decision to summon the Irish ambassador for a reprimand was “a bit of an overreaction”.
Speaking to RTÉ radio on Monday, Harris said Ireland is “utterly elated” at the release of 9-year-old Emily Hand. “This is a complete distraction. The little girl is free. She’s been 50 days in captivity.”
Asked if the relationship with Israel had been further strained, PA Media reports he said: “Israel have decided to summon a number of ambassadors from a number of European countries in recent days, it’s their prerogative to do that.
“I think it is a bit of an overreaction, being honest, and I think the taoiseach’s statement was extraordinarily clear. The main thing is Emily Hand is back with her family.”
Israel took issue with taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying an “an innocent child who was lost has now been found.”
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, said the child had been kidnapped and the comments were an attempt to “legitimise and normalise terror”. Cohen suggested Varadkar had lost his moral compass.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the BBC:
The child, young Emily, was kidnapped, she was held hostage and she has now been released to her family, and other hostages, and of course Palestinian women and children that were also held under administrative detention.
I think, in fairness, the taoiseach’s position has been very consistent and very clear on these matters.
Remember that Gaza has had 50 days of bombardment, the place has been levelled, we are faced with thousands and thousands of deaths, thousands and thousands of innocent children dead.
I think we should not play to any move to distract from that reality and the absolute necessity that we have a permanent ceasefire and a process of peace and dialogue.
As mentioned, delegations from European Union member states and Middle Eastern and north African countries are meeting Monday in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss the crisis in Gaza.
The Associated Press reports that 42 delegations are scheduled to gather at the event hosted by the Union for the Mediterranean, a forum for cooperation between the EU and the Arab world, with many represented by their foreign ministers. Israel is not attending.
The meeting is chaired by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who said he “regretted” the absence of Israel, alongside Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safad.
He repeated his condemnation of the Hamas attack, while calling on Israel to permanently end its assault. “One horror cannot justify another horror,” Borrell said. “Peace between Israel and Palestine has become a strategic imperative for the entire Euro-Mediterranean community and beyond.”
Safad urged the officials attending the meeting to back a two-state solution that would recognise a Palestinian state. “My friends, Europe has a crucial role to play,” Safadi said. “The two-state solution cannot remain a talking point.”
A small pro-Palestinian group rallied before the gathering.
The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization formed by the 27 members of the EU and 16 from the southern and eastern Mediterranean including Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has this morning castigated Israel on social media for planning to fund further settlements.
In a post on social media, Borrell said:
I’m appalled to learn that in the middle of a war, the Israeli gov is poised to commit new funds to build more illegal settlements. This is not self-defence and will not make Israel safer. The settlements are grave IHL breach, and they are Israel’s greatest security liability.
I’m appalled to learn that in the middle of a war, the Israeli gov is poised to commit new funds to build more illegal settlements.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 27, 2023
This is not self-defence and will not make Israel safer. The settlements are grave IHL breach, and they are Israel’s greatest security liability.
Israel’s government is due to discuss its budget today amid a simmering row about where funds should be directed during the war. Minister Benny Gantz has described the budget plans as “a finger in the public’s eye”, while finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has accused critics of “recycling the same false campaign”.
Al Jazeera has spoken to Gaza resident Tala Herzallah, who told the news network that she has no feelings about the truce because “we are still displaced.”
The 21-year-old student said that during the pause in fighting “on the first day we found out that Israeli forces had destroyed our home in the north. It’s just rubble now, and we don’t have a place to go back to”.
Updated
Margalit Moses, one of the hostages released by Hamas over the weekend, has been discharged from hospital, Haaretz reports. The 78-year-old was seized from the kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas on 7 October.
Updated
A four-day truce is an important first step in the Israel-Hamas conflict, but much more is needed to find a way out of the crisis, the EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said on Monday while participating in the Forum for the Union of the Mediterranean in Barcelona, Reuters reports.
Updated
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi,said on Monday that the work for a two-state solution must begin with “ensuring an end to this brutal aggression”, Reuters reports.
He was participating in the Forum for the Union of the Mediterranean in Barcelona.
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said at the event that the Palestinian Authority was the only possible and credible partner to work with to seek peace in the Middle East.
Updated
Israel’s military has released some images which it says shows its forces operating in Gaza during the truce period.
Updated
The BBC is reporting that the son of Elma Avraham, an 84-year-old woman released by Hamas yesterday, has told it that she is in a serious condition and fighting for her life.
It quotes Uri Rawitz saying “The lack of treatment caused the terrible price that we are now forced to face.”
A spokesperson for the Soroka medical centre, where she was taken by helicopter after her release, said: “It is horrific that we now need to continue to care for elderly patients held in underground tunnels for seven weeks with total medical neglect and disregard for their care.”
Updated
Here are some images from Gaza of Palestinians waiting for aid to be distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Khan Younis.
China foreign minister Wang Yi will go to New York on 29 November to host the UN security council session on the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
“China hopes that by hosting this meeting, we can do our part to help realise a ceasefire,” Reuters reports spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a regular press briefing.
Haaretz and Reuters are both reporting that Israeli officials have identified issues with a list of 11 hostages expected to be released from Hamas captivity. Reuters also reports that Hamas has raised concerned over the list of detainees to be released from Israeli jails.
An official briefed on the matter told Reuters that mediators were working with Israel and Hamas to resolve the issues and avoid delays.
Updated
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Western diplomats have turned to the previously neglected Palestinian Authority to fill the political vacuum likely to be created by the planned destruction of Hamas in Gaza, but know their chosen rescue vehicle is unpopular, deemed corrupt, and badly in need of a new generation of leaders that no one has yet been able to identify.
The west’s placement of the PA at the heart of post-conflict governance in Gaza has also been rejected by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, causing consternation in the Biden administration.
Indeed, Israel is so hostile to the PA that it banned the authority’s foreign minister from travelling this month to Bahrain to speak to a conference attended by US and Arab leaders on its post-war plans.
The PA – established in the 1990s as part of the then peace process to run areas in the West Bank and Gaza under Palestinian control – has said it is willing to play a role in Gaza, from where it was expelled by Hamas, but only if it is part of a clear, comprehensive peace plan with Israel that also includes the West Bank. But many doubt its ability to do so, even if there were such a plan. Nasser al-Qudwa, a nephew of Yasser Arafat tipped as future PA leader, said: “I think the current authority, in its present form and with the men leading it, is unable to even set foot in the Gaza Strip, let alone handle the major tasks required at this time.”
Read more here: Corrupt, discredited – could a reformed Palestinian Authority run Gaza?
Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Khan Younis inside Gaza, says that people there consider it “an incomplete and unfair truce” as they are being forbidden from travelling from the south back to their homes and families in the north.
He says Palestinians are “taking this opportunity to secure necessities such as food and water. It’s also an opportunity to grieve properly and to hold proper funerals”.
Updated
While more aid has been coming into Gaza during the ceasefire and civilians have had some relief from daily air strikes, UN officials say that the deliveries have been nothing like the quantity needed after seven weeks of war. Hamas has also complained that Israel has not respected the terms of the deal.
Israel has offered day-long extensions of the “pause” for each additional tranche of 10 hostages released after the initial arrangement ends tomorrow morning. Egyptian officials have spoken of “positive signals” about that happening, while Joe Biden said that “the chances are real”. And the pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to go further has been raised by a protest of thousands of Israelis in front of Tel Aviv’s military headquarters on Saturday.
But the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has called the ceasefire “a short respite, at the end of which the fighting will continue intensely” and predicted another two months of fighting.
On Friday, Patrick Wintour wrote that both sides have powerful reasons to reject an extension. But with Hamas signalling its openness to further releases and Benjamin Netanyahu responding positively, hopes that the pause might continue are higher this morning.
Central to that prospect is whether Hamas is able to locate some of the dozens of hostages said to be held by other groups in Gaza, the Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman told the Financial Times. “If they get additional women and children, there will be an extension,” he said. “We don’t yet have any clear information how many they can find.” Even if that happens, the fighting is likely to resume in 2-4 days time.
Read more here: Monday briefing: After joyful reunions for Israelis and Palestinians, will the ‘pause’ be extended?
In Israel, the prime minister’s office has said it is evaluating the list of hostages that Hamas is proposing to release next. In a post on social media Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said:
Discussions are being held on the list that was received overnight and which is now being evaluated in Israel. Additional information will be issued when possible.
Announcement by the Prime Minister's Office-Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 27, 2023
Discussions are being held on the list that was received overnight and which is now being evaluated in Israel. Additional information will be issued when possible.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
A Thai Muslim group that spoke directly with Hamas has said their efforts were the driving force securing the release of Thai hostages from Gaza during the temporary truce, countering reports that gave credit to the foreign ministry and other negotiators, Reuters reports.
“We were the sole party that spoke to Hamas since the beginning of the war to ask for the release of Thais,” the Thai-Iran Alumni Association’s president, Lerpong Syed, told the news agency on Monday.
Three Thai hostages held by Hamas militants were released from Gaza on Sunday, taking the number of Thai nationals freed since the four-day truce began on Friday to 17.
Lerpong is part of a group of Thai Muslims convened by the country’s parliamentary speaker, Wan Muhammad Noor Matha, which travelled to Tehran in October and spoke with Hamas representatives.
Lerpong said:
If Thailand only relied on the foreign ministry or asked other countries for help, the chances of getting released with the first group would be very low.
He added that other countries with hostages such as the US, Germany and France had more influence.
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The fullest image yet of life under Hamas captivity was conjured by 85-year-old Yocheved Lipschitz, a hostage who was freed before the current ceasefire. Upon her release, Lipschitz said she had been held in tunnels that stretched under Gaza “like a spider web”, Associated Press reports.
She said her captors “told us they are people who believe in the Qur’an and wouldn’t hurt us”.
Lifshitz said captives were treated well and received medical care, including medication. The guards kept conditions clean, she said. Hostages were given one meal a day of cheese, cucumber and pita, she said, adding that her captors ate the same.
There were initial indications that the recently freed hostages had also been held underground. Eyal Nouri, the nephew of Adina Moshe, 72, who was freed on Friday, said his aunt “had to adjust to the sunlight” because she had been in darkness for weeks.
Nouri said:
She was in complete darkness. She was walking with her eyes down because she was in a tunnel. She was not used to the daylight. And during her captivity, she was disconnected … from all the outside world.
Nouri said that Moshe didn’t know that she was going to be released until the very last moment – “until she saw the Red Cross”.
Yair Rotem, whose niece Hila Rotem-Shoshani was released on Sunday – the day before her 13th birthday – said he had to keep reminding her she didn’t need to whisper.
Rotem said:
They always told them to whisper and stay quiet, so I keep telling her now she can raise her voice.
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Plastic chairs as beds. Meals of bread and rice. Hours spent waiting for the bathroom. As hostages return to Israel after seven weeks of Hamas captivity, information about the conditions of their confinement has begun to trickle out, Associated Press reports.
The 58 hostages freed since Friday under the ceasefire deal have largely stayed out of the public eye, with most still in hospitals around Israel. Most of those released appear to be in stable physical condition.
But the details of their captivity after Hamas militants dragged them into Gaza during their bloody attack on 7 October are emerging through stories their family members are telling the press.
Relatives of the hostages are reporting their family members were fed irregularly and lost weight. One says her family members slept on chairs pushed together. Others say their recently freed relatives are adjusting to sunlight after spending so much time underground.
Merav Raviv, whose three relatives were released by Hamas on Friday, said they had been fed irregularly and had eaten mainly rice and bread. She said her cousin and aunt, Keren and Ruth Munder, had each lost about 7kg (15lbs) in 50 days. Her nephew, nine-year-old Ohad Munder-Zichri, also looked thin.
Raviv said she’d heard from her freed family members that they had slept on rows of chairs pushed together in a room that looked like a reception area. They said they sometimes had to wait hours before going to the toilet.
Adva Adar, the grandchild of 85-year-old released hostage Yaffa Adar, said her grandmother had also lost weight.
She counted the days of her captivity. She came back and she said: ‘I know that I’ve been there for 50 days.’
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Thailand’s ministry of foreign affairs has shared images of the three Thai nationals released on Sunday.
They are now at the Shamir Medical Centre, south-east of Tel Aviv, accompanied by Thai embassy officials.
The ministry said it “warmly congratulates the recently released hostages and their families and thanks all parties involved in the efforts towards this latest release”.
For the remaining 15 Thai hostages, the royal Thai government continues to exert all efforts towards their safe release at the earliest opportunity, while preparing to bring back the now 17 Thais who have already been released, back to Thailand after their preliminary checks as soon as possible.
Here’s more on the four-year-old Israeli American girl released by Hamas on Sunday – she had been captured on 7 October after seeing her parents killed during the militant storming of southern Israel, US president Joe Biden said.
Abigail Edan, who turned four while in captivity, became the third person with US citizenship freed by Hamas during the seven weeks of war with Israel, Reuters reports.
Relatives told US CBS News last week that the toddler, in the event that she were released, would go to stay with family members in Israel who had already taken in her two older siblings.
Biden said that was the toddler had endured “is unthinkable”.
“We hoped and prayed today would come,” Liz Hirsh Naftali and Noa Naftali, Edan’s great aunt and cousin, said in a statement after her release, thanking Biden and the Qatari government for their work in securing it.
There are no words to express our relief and gratitude that Abigail is safe and coming home.
Biden spoke with members of the dual US-Israeli citizen’s family in the US and Israel after she was freed, the White House said.
Our story earlier on Abigail’s release can be seen here.
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Truce enters final day as Israel under pressure to extend deal
The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its 7 October attack.
The pause that began on Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with more than 100 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in return.
Agence France-Presse also reports that attention now has turned to whether the truce will be extended before its scheduled end early on Tuesday morning.
US president Joe Biden said Sunday:
That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza.
He said he would like the fighting to be paused for “as long as prisoners keep coming out”.
Hamas has signalled its willingness to extend the truce, with a source telling AFP the group told mediators they were open to prolonging it by “two to four days”.
Israel faces enormous pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to extend the truce to secure more releases. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had spoken to Biden and would welcome extending the temporary truce if it meant that on every additional day 10 captives would be freed.
Under the truce, 50 hostages held by the militants were to be freed over four days in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. A built-in mechanism extends it if at least 10 Israeli captives are released each extra day
The third group of hostages released on Sunday included a four-year-old American citizen named Abigail whose parents were both murdered in the Hamas attacks.
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Opening summary
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a snapshot of the top developments:
The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause, while US president Joe Biden said he hoped it could continue as long as hostages were being released.
Hamas freed 17 more people on Sunday in the third exchange of hostages and prisoners under the four-day ceasefire deal that began on Friday, while Israel released 39 Palestinian detainees.
Israel faces enormous pressure from the families of hostages, as well as allies, to extend the truce to secure more releases. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday made the first visit to Gaza by an Israeli premier since 2005, said he had spoken to Biden and would welcome extending the truce if it meant that on every additional day 10 captives would be freed.
But Netanyahu said he also told the US president that, at the end of the truce, “we will return with full force to achieve our goals” of eliminating Hamas and securing the remaining hostages’ release.
More on that story shortly. In other news as it turns 7am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
The 17 hostages Hamas freed on Sunday included a four-year-old Israeli-American girl, three Thai nationals and a Russian national, and all the Israelis were women or children, Israel said. Prison authorities said 39 Palestinian prisoners, also women and children, were freed from Israeli jails.
One hundred and twenty aid trucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza on Sunday, including two fuel trucks and two with gas for cooking, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service said. “The truce is proceeding without roadblocks,” Diaa Rashwan said.
A US Navy warship responded to a distress call from a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden that had been seized by armed individuals and was now safe and free, US officials say. The tanker, carrying a cargo of phosphoric acid, was identified as the Central Park by the vessel’s company. The officials did not identify the attackers. The incident is the latest in a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.
Hamas has announced that four senior commanders have been killed, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, a commander in the north of Gaza. Ghandour – whose nom de guerre was Abu Anas – was listed by the US in 2017 as a “specially designated global terrorist”.
A Palestinian farmer was killed and another injured on Sunday after they were targeted by Israeli forces in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported.
Israel’s military claimed to have killed five Palestinians overnight on Saturday as well as arresting 21 in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Funerals were held for those killed on Sunday. The Palestinian health ministry said three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning.
The current state of aid in Gaza is “hardly enough for humanitarian response if we want to reverse the impact of the siege of Gaza Strip”, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said. Philippe Lazzarini told US CBS’s Face the Nation said on Sunday that a lot more aid was required than the 160 to 200 trucks’ worth crossing into Gaza daily over the past few days.
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Monday, along with Israelis whose relatives have been held by Hamas in Gaza. Herzog’s office announced the meeting on Sunday night, saying: “In their meeting, the president will emphasise the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online.” Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, has been accused by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Israel’s Channel 12 said the billionaire would also meet Benjamin Netanyahu on the visit.
The Israeli government has accused Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, of legitimising terror and losing his moral compass by saying a freed Irish-Israeli hostage had been “lost” as opposed to kidnapped.
Three college students described as being of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded in the US city of Burlington, Vermont, on their way to a family dinner on Saturday evening.
Tens of thousands of people including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against antisemitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally. Johnson was joined by the UK chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march, which organisers billed as the largest gathering against antisemitism in London for almost a century. Police at the march detained Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more widely known by his alias Tommy Robinson, who is the former leader of the far-right English Defence League.
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